Gabber Modus Operandi, Rani Jambak, J. "Mo'ong" Santoso Pribadi + more

A Yes No Wave label showcase curated by Aki Onda and Wok the Rock, featuring performances by:

presented with support from

plus video works by:

presented with support from

Curated by and

A touring showcase of music and video works from Indonesia represented by the label run by the interdisciplinary artist and producer Wok the Rock. The tour is presented by Send + Receive Festival, Winnipeg; Music Gallery, Toronto; Debaser, Ottawa; Art in the Margins, Montréal; and Western Front, Vancouver between Oct 12 – 19, 2023.

Based in the Javanese cultural hub Yogyakarta, Yes No Wave Music is an online label and platform to nurture Indonesian artists and promote their activities internationally. Founded by Wok the Rock in 2007, the label is run with a DIY ethos to build a post-capitalist alternative to music industry norms. All music on the label is free to download, distribute, and even remix, reflecting the Indonesian social value of sharing communal resources, and the necessity for artists to develop their activities in spite of nominal government support and funding. In 2010, Wok and Timothy O’Donoghue initiated the monthly concert series Yes No Club traveling throughout Southeast Asia and beyond. He subsequently co-curated Nausasonic in 2018-2022. These efforts fostered the international success of artists such as Senyawa, Gabber Modus Operandi, Raja Kirik, and Asep Nayak.

Since moving to Yogyakarta to study graphic design as a teenager, Wok’s cultural activism has continued to grow over the past two decades. He co-founded art space Ruang MES 56, curated the Biennale Jogja XIII in 2015, and organized numerous community art projects. This informs his unique interdisciplinary practice of crossing boundaries of music and visual art.

This event takes place on the stolen land of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg people. If you support our programming, please consider also donating to a local Indigenous organization or fundraiser. Learn more about this land acknowledgement and find educational resources and ways to support at www.debaser.ca/land-acknowledgement

Club SAW and the SAW Courtyard are accessible spaces. The indoor venue is accessible by a ramp from street level, the doors are automatic, and bathrooms are wheelchair accessible (including adult-sized change tables). Bathrooms are also gender neural.

Attendees, artists and staff are expected to respect one another. Zero tolerance for violence, aggression, oppressive behaviour or language, or bullying. If you are currently implicated in an accountability process, please ensure you are respecting the space and well-being of those you have affected.

Photo: Denny Novikar

Gabber Modus Operandi is the duo of DJ/producer Kasimyn and artist/fashion designer Ican Harem, based in Bali, Indonesia. The group was founded following a fad staging at an underground punk concert in Denpasar, Indonesia. Their experimentation began with an obsession for the energy and intensity of Jathilan, gabber, dangdut koplo, ebeg, funkot, Chicago footwork, grindcore, and noise dance cultures, and the community parties in Indonesia’s smaller cities.

Johanes “Mo’ong” Santoso Pribadi is an experimental composer and instrument builder born in Bangkok, Thailand and raised in Java, Indonesia. Mo’ong started his studies in Western classical music with a major in double bass, but later returned to his roots to explore the wisdom of Javanese folklore and music Nusantara (“the music of Indonesia”). Mo’ong has been involved with a variety of national and international multidisciplinary projects within modern dance and theatre, contemporary puppet theatre, installation art, performance art, and independent film. He is the initiator of Limbah Berbuny, a project focused on creating musical instruments from found objects and junk; and is a member of the experimental music duo Raja Kirik.

Rani Jambak is a composer, producer, and vocalist of Minangkabau descent from Medan, Indonesia. Through electronic music and soundscapes, Jambak’s work explores ecology, identity, and the socio-cultural relationship between humans and their ancestors. Her practice has also involved collaborating with Indonesian environmental organizations PPLH Borok and Orangutan Haven on ecological sound projects.

Natasha Tontey is an artist based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Her artistic practice predominantly explores the fictional accounts of the history and myths surrounding “manufactured fear.” Working across digital animation, performance, and installation, she observes the possibilities of alternative futures projected from outcast entities and beings beyond the perspectives of major institutions. Tontey is a fellow for Human Machine at the Junge Akademie through Akademie der Künste, Berlin.

Riar Rizaldi is an artist and filmmaker born in Bandung, Indonesia. He works predominantly with moving images and sound, both in the black-box of cinema settings and installations within gallery contexts. His artistic practice focuses on the relationship between capital and technology, and labour and nature, as well as worldviews, genre cinema, and theoretical fiction.

Wok The Rock is an artist, curator, music producer, and cultural activist born in Madiun, Indonesia, and based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Working across the fields of contemporary art, design, and underground music, Wok’s practice focuses on experimenting with collective space. In addition to running the non-profit online label Yes No Wave Music, Wok curates the experimental music concert series Yes No Klub, is a member of the Yogyakarta-based artist collective Ruang MES 56, and is a founder of the Indonesia Netaudio Forum.

Aki Onda is an artist, composer, performer, and curator based in Mito, Japan, and is currently Curator-at-Large at Western Front, Vancouver. Their works are often catalyzed by and structured around memories—personal, collective, and historical. Crossing genres and disciplines, they have been active internationally in art, film, music and performance.

Host or Publisher Debaser